Ooblets shows off new card-based dance battles

How, exactly, does one mechanically win at a dance battle? That’s the question addressed by a recent update by the developers of upcoming creature farming sim Ooblets. Apparently, the answer is that you play your cards right.

Developers Glumberland announced in June that they were dropping their old battle system because “throwing your tiny friends into the equivalent of dogfights doesn’t really fit the tone of Ooblets where everything is cute and friendly.” At the time they explained that they were replacing it with dance battles, but weren’t clear on how those would actually work. Now, they’ve released more details, saying that they’ve drawn on inspiration from card-based fights in games like Slay The Spire.

Cards will cost action points, or ‘beats’ to play, and you’ll be able to throw down up to three cards from a randomised selection of the moves your ooblet knows every turn. Accordingly, they can now learn a “deck” of up to fifteen options, where they were previously limited to a Pokémon-like four. You’ll be able to unlock and collect new moves on level-up, and improve them by paying with all the crops you’ve farmed, too.

Ooblets’ dance battles are all about getting into your opponent’s head. Instead of hitpoints, enemy ooblets will have a level of “ego” which you’ll have to reduce by shaming them with your very best boogieing. The new announcement also adds status conditions into the mix, like ‘Lingering Doubt’ which drains ego each turn. It might be less cruel than dogfighting, but these dance battles still seem like they can get pretty harsh!

Glumberland are in the process of playtesting and tweaking all of this, so they don’t have a firm release date yet, but you can keep up with the game’s progress via their website.